Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Means to identify cell or battery type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-29
2001-01-30
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Means to identify cell or battery type
C320S112000, C702S063000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06181103
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a simplified battery pack with an AICPM system to complete a smart battery management system. The simplified battery pack contains a temperature sensor, a display and an EEPROM. Such a simplified battery pack is referred to as a removable and data-accessible (RADA) battery pack. A RADA battery pack can be connected to an AICPM system via a data bus, and may record and display the characteristics, number of times used, remaining capacity, last time used, and all kinds of identification information pertaining to the battery pack. The main features of this invention include reducing the cost and adding new functions to the traditional smart battery.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREVISOUS WORK
Most battery packs used in modern portable computers have installed a traditional gauge board for displaying and calculating battery capacities. Such batter packs are usually called smart battery packs. Smart battery packs provide the actual capacity, usable time, number of times used, and nominal capacity of the portable battery so that users can monitor the status of the battery and avoid unanticipated outages of power or interruptions of usage. However, the cost of this traditional gauge board is extremely high, takes up approximately one-fifths to one-thirds of the actual battery pack, and furthermore the battery pack itself is a disposable material. Thus, when the lifetime of the battery pack expires, the whole pack, including the expensive gauge board, must be disposed of, which causes unnecessary waste and increases manufacturing costs and increases the environmental burden. Moreover, the gauge board using many electronic components and occupying a significant portion of the battery pack increases the manufacturing difficulty and reduces the reliability of the product. When the traditional small battery pack is unused for an extended period of time, the energy stored in the battery dissipates due to the self-discharging of each battery cell (a natural electrochemical process). On the other hand, the traditional gauge board will itself continuously take up minute portions of electricity that often speeds up the dissipation of power, resulting in a significantly diminished energy capacity in the battery pack. In addition, the battery pack capacity in notebook computers is limited, and practically it is not wise, in terms of design, to continuously dissipate energy for the extraneous purpose of displaying battery information. For example, an ordinary gauge board will consume about 5-10 ma/HR a day, which is higher than the self-discharging of a single cell in the battery pack. That fact saliently points out the design drawbacks of traditional smart battery packs and leaves room for improvement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main purpose of this invention is to provide a reliable lifecycle record and analysis of the battery pack, and facilitate the best usage of the battery pack during its operation lifetime. Furthermore, the battery pack is implemented without a gauge board, thus reducing the manufacture cost of the battery pack and reduces the pollution burden the environment.
As mentioned above, this invention removes the original control circuit board of the smart battery pack to outside of the battery and enhances the algorithm for computing the battery characteristics to provide a more accurate estimate of the lifetime of the battery, thus greatly improving the performance of the battery. Meanwhile, the precise historical data of the battery can be preserved by an EEPROM installed inside the RADA battery pack and can be accessed anytime by the external control unit. When the RADA battery pack is connected on line with the AICPM system, the microprocessor unit (MPU) of the host computer (keyboard controller) will acquire the terminal voltage and the loop current of the battery pack detected by the voltage detector and by the current detector, respectively. It can also acquire the impedance variation caused by battery internal temperature change and detected by the temperature sensor. Such data may be treated as the basic parameters of the battery pack. The MPU uses the current direction detected by the current detector to decide whether the battery pack is currently in the charging or the discharging mode, and then computes and updates pertinent parameters of the battery. The internal memory of the removable data-accessible smart battery pack can be accessed via the 12C data bus to retrieve the parameters of the battery and use them determine the full function of the battery pack. The battery data can be obtained by the MPU through the SM bus in real time. The MPU updates the EEPROM of the RADA battery pack by storing the newest computed data in a timely manner, thus continuously updating the historic data of the battery. Meanwhile, the current status of the RADA battery pack is displayed on the notebook screen via the notebook keyboard control unit, i.e., it can provide the real-time data of the removable data-accessible smart battery pack to the notebook users at any time.
In the charging mode, the MPU controls the charging circuitry to output suitable voltage and current to continuously charge the RADA battery pack. Meanwhile, the terminal voltage, the charging current, and the internal temperature of the RADA battery pack are monitored. The internal program of the MPU then uses these data to determine whether the battery pack is fully charged. When the RADA pack is fully charged, the MPU controls the charging circuitry to stop the charging process and send out a fully charged notification to the user.
In the discharging mode, the MPU computes the remaining capacity and other pertinent parameters of the RADA battery pack by detecting the current flowing through the current sense resistor on a regular time basis. Meanwhile, the MPU determines whether the terminal voltage of the battery pack has reached the pre-specified lower limit by detecting the terminal voltage via a voltage detector. If the low voltage limit is reached, an alarm notifying user of the battery packs insufficient level will be sent to notify portable computer user(s) to turn-off the notebook and begin the battery pack charging process. During the charging/discharging processes, the MPU accepts and answers external inquiries coming from the SM bus so that the battery pack data can be accessed externally at any time and updates the battery internal memory regularly to preserve the newest status of the RADA battery pack. It also displays the battery status on a portable computer screen via the SM bus and the keyboard control of the portable computer, i.e., it can provide real-time information about the removable data-accessible smart battery pack to portable computer users.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6025695 (2000-02-01), Friel et al.
patent: 6078871 (2000-06-01), Anderson
patent: 6081096 (2000-07-01), Barkat et al.
Rabin & Champagne, P.C.
Toatley Jr. Gregory J
Wong Peter S.
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